Topical Tropes

These are what we call the 'YMMV items.' Things that some people find in this work. We call them 'your mileage might vary' because not everyone sees these things in the same way. This starts discussions in the trope lists, a thing we don't want. Please use the discussion page if you'd like to discuss any of these items.

"The Hot Wind Blowing," a remix of Collective Consciousness, which turned out to be the theme song of the Blade Wolf DLC's final boss.

It still counts as this in the traditional way, as the lyrics only kick in during the finisher QTE, meaning you basically have to pause the game during it to have any chance of hearing more than than 20 seconds of them.

Best Boss Ever: While any of the bosses in the game are all extremely awesome, special credit goes to the Final Boss, Senator Armstrong, who first fights you in a block-sized Metal Gear before absolutely thrashing Raiden in a fight, firmly solidifying his status as a complete and total Badass. It takes Sam's sword and Wolf getting smashed by Armstrong for Raiden to even stand a chance. Moral support is also available thanks to "It Has To Be This Way" and the encouragement from all of Raiden's codec comrades.

Metal Gear Ray may be the first boss in the game, but he's still very memorable, if only because of RULES OF NATURE!

Breather Boss: Sundowner, and a possible Anti-Climax Boss at that given he's initially made out to be the Big Bad. Formidable as he is, he doesn't require nearly as much finesse and skill to keep up with as Monsoon, the previous boss. He also has disproportionately low health considering his physique and fighting style (Some players poked through game files and found out that while Monsoon has 8000 health points, Sundowner has only 5000), you can also ignore his main gimmick (cutting through his shields with Blade Mode when prompted) pretty easily, and his attacks in his second phase are slow and heavy enough that parrying them should prove fairly easy even for someone struggling with the parry mechanics.

A game chronologically taking place after Guns of the Patriots. Some feel it "cheapens" MGS4's sense of a Grand Finale for the series, in addition to introducing a Happy Ending Override. This is probably the main reason the game's status in canon is so hotly debated amongst the fanbase. Furthermore, the (chronologically) final (maybe) game in the series being developed by Platinum Games rather than Kojima Productions.

Canon Fodder: The game references multiple events also mentioned in the Metal Gear Solid 4 Database regarding Raiden's transformation into a cyborg between Sons of Liberty and Guns of the Patriots, without going into the specifics of those events either.

Complete Monster: Sundowner is a war profiteer who seeks to spread War for Fun and Profit around the world, believing it to be the natural state of mankind. He begins the game by killing President N'mami in front of Raiden whilst being needlessly sadistic, and has street children kidnapped while their brains (of which we see hundreds) are removed into cyborg casings while they are aware the whole time. They're forced to commit endless atrocities in virtual reality before they are sent off to commit them in the real world as well. Sundowner has no good intentions or vision for peace like Hot Coldman or Revengeance's own Big Bad; he's more sadistically gleeful and sociopathically unrepentant of his atrocities.

Counterpart Comparison: Raiden to Big Boss. Raiden expresses a desire to put his violent past behind him by seeking peaceful applications of his abilities, even using the analogy of deterrence wherein his powers would starve off potential violence in the future. Has his idealistic vision ruined through a vicious assault on him and his allies, and loses his left eye and his left arm in the process (curiously Big Boss lost his left arm in MGSV, and had lost his right eye prior to that). When he wakes up he is hellbent on revenge and goes to any length to achieve that goal, sacrificing his body, his philosophy, and even his own sword to achieve his vengeance, perverting what he once stood for. It's almost prophetic how close this is to what Big Boss goes through in MGSV, to the point that one almost begins to think that Kojima used Rising as a deliberate foreshadowing of what would happen to Big Boss in the next game.

Demonic Spiders: The mastiff enemies. They have a slow wind up for their attacks, but they're incredibly agile which causes the camera to go berserk far more often than with any other enemy and can also easily leave Raiden vulnerable. Especially when they dropkick Raiden, which has little warning and is the only move of theirs you can't outrun with Ninja Run. And you're often facing several at a time.

Draco in Leather Pants: A lot of people ended up agreeing with the ideology that Senator Armstrong spouts, even though his actions in controlling Desperado show that, while he does have points regarding the issues plaguing his nation, neither the ends nor the means are justified.

Ear Worm: Time to leave them all behiiiind, or to be specific, the vocal portion of Bladewolf's boss theme, both for being very cool and because the fight against Bladewolf is the last thing you do in the demo. Expect just about every Let's Player to start singing along when they get to that part.

The final boss music has this as well.

"And staring across this barren, wasted land, I feel new life will be born beneath the blood-stained SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND!"

Jetstream Sam is also a bit of this as well. It helps that the first DLC for the game features him.

Sundowner is popular for his intense meme value ("DON'T FUCK WITH ME, JACK!" "I'M FUCKIN' INVINCIBLE!" "All we're saying is...GIVE WAR A CHANCE!"), rather goofy face◊ and ridicuously hammy voice-acting.

Esoteric Happy Ending: Armstrong is beaten, and Desperado has been effectively dismantled. However, the best possible result for the victims is an "imperfect solution for an imperfect world." Not only that but Raiden has abandoned any hope for a peaceful life, leaving behind his family that he returned to war to support in the first place.

Jetstream Sam and the Winds of the Destruction (particularly Monsoon) have similarly found a place in the hearts of most fans.

Evil Is Sexy: The Winds of Destruction bring some equal-opportunity eye-candy with the charming, darkly humorous, and ruggedly handsome Sam on one side and the seductive bombshell Mistral on the other. Sexy accents included free change of charge!

Face of the Band: Sam seems to be this for the Winds of Destruction, even if he's not an official member. Sundowner may be the leader, but Sam has the more prominent role in marketing materials and overall plot relevance as The Rival to Raiden.

Fandom Berserk Button: For the love of whatever deity you worship, do not go after the soundtrack. Even critics who didn't like the game were wise enough to praise it.

Foe Yay: Mistral hits on Raiden several times with her final words being a love declaration in French. However, her last words were actually meant for Armstrong.

Fountain of Memes: The entire game. To such a degree that it's become memetic itself. Special credit goes to Steven Armstrong.

Friendly Fandoms: Fans of the classic Devil May Cry who are upset over the reboot due to its redesigns and use of gameplay mechanics more similar to that of Heavenly Sword as opposed to a sequel/prequel within the original continuity support this game instead of the reboot. The game's fast movements and Raiden's appearance probably help.

The Fox Blade, once bought and upgraded will kill all non-boss enemies in 1-2 hits, even on Revengeance difficulty.

The Blue Wig, which gives Raiden infinite fuel cells for unlimited Bullet Time and Super Mode, which can also be combined to slow the game down to 1/10th normal speed. Though the wig can only be purchased after beating normal or above with 20/30 collectible data chips, it makes all but Revengeance Mode a walk through the bloody, eviscerated park.

Unlike all the other Game Breaker items in past games like the stealth camo or the bandanna, there's no score penalty for using the Fox Blade or any of the wigs.

The dwarf gekkos. The only purpose they serve is to Zerg Rush you, stun you and leave you open for other enemy attacks.

Also the flying mechs, which serve only to pick at your health with their gun, occasionally swoop you while you're distracted, and have a tendency to hover just out of reach of jump attacks.

Mooks with rocket-propelled grenades. Not so bad on their own, but in groups they will rarely give you a second to rest, especially in wide-open areas. It's especially bad on higher difficulties with little to no health packs, making you move faster than your brain can comprehend just to avoid them.

Rising contains additional discussion of Raiden's past as a Child Soldier in Liberia, making the discussion of those events in MGS2 more disturbing.

Being able to wear the Raikov Mask when Naked Snake loses his right eye in MGS3 becomes creepier considering Raiden gets one of his eyes cut out by Sam in this game.

There are times that the player can cut a soldier's arms but the enemy will still try to kill him in his state. While this is Played for Laughs, we later learn that they have nanomachines that suppress their fear meaning that they were actually in panic and wanted to escape.

Rising is the first Metal Gear game developed specifically for consoles since MGS4, making Rose's suggestion at the end of the MGS3: Subsistence short Metal Gear Raiden: Snake Eraser that Raiden try to become the main character of MGS5 instead of Retconing himself into the previous games all the more amusing.

For added humor, he's still not the main character of the actual fifth MGS game.

In an early codec, Doktor mentions the Prime Minister would have survived if he had been a cyborg. Raiden states it would have been ridiculous to have a cyborg Prime Minister. Some chapters later, Raiden fights a politician equipped with nanomachines that make him as powerful as a cyborg.

Metal Gear Excelsus has many legs and two big, almost pincer-like blades. Crab battle will be going through your head the whole time.

Speaking of Brotherhood, Ezio in Raiden's armor makes him look an awful lot like Sam...

A common joke within the fandom is that by divine law, every woman Otacon loves dies. In a Codec convo, Sunny mentions that Otacon has become very popular with the ladies, but for some unknown reason, he's always dating a different woman.

In his first appearance, Raiden's final enemy happened to be an ex-President of the United States. Now he's fighting an actual American senator and when blocking Armstrong's attacks Raiden acts as if he is used to these types of politicians full of ideals.

Late in the main game, Raiden steals a motorcycle as transport and leaves an apology inscription on the ground. The Jetstream Sam DLC reveals that it was Sam's motorcycle all along.

And that's after he lifts the behemoth and throws it. Followed by, Raiden ripping the arm off and parrying its attack.

At one point Raiden catches a ride on a below-spacecraft that goes roughly 4500 miles in 30 minutes at Mach 23.

The entirety of the last 35 minutes of the game is basically a series of these, with each moment being exponentially more insane than the last.

It's Short, so It Sucks : Some fans believe this. A little more valid complaint though comes from some critics who believed that the story was too short to have any of the new characters be fleshed out enough.

Raiden's support team actually gets development if the players use the Codec and they start understanding Raiden's Hidden Depths. The villains actually received more development than most of the ones from the Cobra Unit and the Beauty and the Beast Unit since they loved interacting with Raiden, and each one's Villain Song manages to give them a good motivation (if you can decipher the fast spoken lyrics and cryptic symbolism behind them).

Les Yay: In R-01, after Mistral spots you from afar and you talk to your comrades in the Codec, everyone will compliment her looks... Courtney included.

Magnificent Bastard: Armstrong. He manages to take Raiden's interference with his Evil Plan work to his advantage and actually helps it along. The only thing that foiled it was getting killed by Raiden.

Moral Event Horizon: Most anything Desperado and World Marshall are allowed to doing is this, but what really sets them up is kidnapping kids off the street, removing their brains and putting them through horrific VR training to turn them into cyborg supersoldiers.

Mondegreen: "THERE ARE SEVENTY-TWO WOMEN TO BE RRRAAAPPPED! THE CHOCOLATE'S FALLING GENTLY DOWN ON THE TEEERRRAAIIN!"

Most Wonderful Sound: Though it isn't heard very often in the game, Jason Miller's triumphant scream of "RULES OF NATURE!" is a delight to listen to every time it plays. Luckily, it's also Memetic Mutation.

SenatorArmstrong delivering a Curb-Stomp Battle intercut with a political speech, petty insults and awkward butt shots. Taken Up to Eleven when he kicks Raiden only to cue inexplicable cheers and clapping to like he scored a field goal.

The musical howl that plays at the end when Bladewolf steps up to give Raiden Sam's sword.

One-Scene Wonder: Monsoon is introduced to Raiden and the player at the end of a stage and killed before he leaves Raiden's presence, but his lecture and Raiden's reaction to it make his screen time quite memorable.

The Otaku guard at Sunny's space program headquarters has left quite an amusing impression on the fans.

Armstrong only appears on-screen at its climax, but boy does he sure steal it.

Player Punch: When Sam pulls the Not So Different card between Raiden and the Denver policemen you've been fighting up to this point. You hear their thoughts on how they're afraid of Raiden and they fight because it's the only thing keeping them alive. Then you have to fight them while still hearing this.

Followed by the remaining policeman lamenting on how he was the only one spared.

To elaborate, while the port isn't amazing, it's very well optimized (though it doesn't have the option for better textures than the console version), and despite some issues [including a 1080p resolution limit and a bug that would close the game when there is no internet connection (the latter of which has been fixed with an official patch)], it is a rather solid port, and people from Platinum and Konami are getting active feedback from PC players, as well. The fact that it comes with every piece of DLC, all for half the original cost of the console version, is icing on the cake.

Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Sunny was seen as The Scrappy in MGS4 for her awkward fascination with eggs, her shy personality, and being a genius for her age who surprisingly outclasses Naomi and Otacon. Now in Rising, she's a bit older and is more talkative and expressive with Raiden. Furthermore, as one of the few returning characters her dialogues were looked forward by fans since she brought up information about Otacon.

If anyone still considered Raiden to be a Scrappy after Guns of the Patriots, they were promptly silenced by the sheer badassery that he displays in this game.

Rooting for the Empire: Many players sympathize with and even agree with some of Armstrong's anarchistic goals. Reasons for this may be due in part to his reminiscence of Big Boss's ideals and the moral nuance of striving for peace but paradoxically using violence to achieve this goal, making him give off the vibe of a well-intentioned revolutionary. And the fact that Armstrong has several similarities to Raiden in ideology. It certainly helps that his character lampshades the absurdities of American politics.

Doktor can also be very annoying in this regard since his death quote involves lamenting over how Raiden should be "stronger than this"... when all the VR missions force you to do them with no life or fuel upgrades and on harder missions this means that 95% of all enemy attacks are One Hit Kills.

Scrappy Mechanic: Some fans were frustrated with a few mechanics in the game, including:

Unique weapons replacing the High Frequency Blade's heavy attack when equipped instead of having their own dedicated button.

The inability to swap between sub-weapons on the fly. Trying to do a No Damage Run after hitting a checkpoint with the wrong weapon equipped means spending precious seconds standing still to swap the weapon out, potentially ruining your chances before you can even start. This was fixed in a later patch; you can now change weapons while running, but not in the middle of Combos.

Apparently this is mostly due to the memory-intensive procedural cutting engine: there simply isn't enough RAM available on either console to run it with all 3 secondary weapons being usable at the same time.

The use of an auto save (instead of the manual save found in the Metal Gear Solid games). Getting hit right before a checkpoint during a perfect run or missing a collectible often means having to restart the entire level to get back to it.

The camera system, as it can feel sluggish, is awkwardly positioned in Blade Mode, and in certain instances re-positions itself while you're attempting to perform a parry or see an enemy.

Sam's VR Missions from the Jetstream Sam Downloadable Contentcampaign can only be accessed from terminals you find in the levels themselves, and not from a separate VR menu like Raiden's.

Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped: Homeless and impoverished children and their exploitation are a major problem in the world today, and the game makes no effort to mask this.

There are some people and organizations in the world that blatantly violate the laws and moral standards of society, and if they do operate within the law they will use the law as a shield to protect their immoral activities and interests. Such people can't be negotiated with and need to be dealt with harshly and permanently. The story goes to great lengths to show Raiden as operating outside of the law in order to do the right thing; that operating within the law is not always the same as being moral, and it's important that we try to recognize the difference.

Special Effects Failure: The free-cutting mechanic is impressive, allowing Raiden to slice up enemies into a million pieces while rarely ever dropping in framerate. It's not perfect, though: cuts at some angles can cause pieces that appear removed from the bodies of enemies to move as though they were still connected.

Many Kill la Kill fans also think Revengeance is the closest thing to a KLK game. Ironically, Platinum Games have no interest in making a KLK game, not helped by the producer and Hideki Kamiya getting flooded with requests to do so.

Stormbringer/Becoming a Lightning God, which requires you to beat Revengeance difficultywith all S ranks. Considering that there are certain encounters that give you ranks which are easily missed, and trying to get the bonuses for taking no damage and not killing anyone, you can see that this will take multiple tries. Made worse by the fact that, should you miss a single grading on an otherwise perfect S-Rank run, obtaining it means going back and doing a full perfect run of the level again.

If you S-rank the levels out of order, you also need to beat the last level again with an S-rank for the achievement to count, and it's extremely easy to screw up the second part of the Armstrong battle since getting hit gives you no time to restart the battle as the game autosaves instantly if you've hit him enough times beforehand and forces you into a QTE that ends the battle, and if you haven't reduced his life enough for the QTE to trigger, you die instead which also makes the game autosave and disqualify you from a No Damage Run: while it's still possible to get an S-rank if you get hit, you need to fulfill every other criteria perfectly and you can't restart the battle if you don't do well enough.

Amateur Radio Operator, which requires you to listen to most of the Codec conversations. This means that you have to constantly call everyone whenever you reach a checkpoint, get into a fight, reach a new area, see a civilian, when fighting a boss, whenever a boss changes phases, and some other optional requirements. Thankfully, each conversation carries over whenever you start a New Game+, and you can skip convos you've already seen if you want to get the trophy quicker.

Virtually Flawless/Virtually a God, which requires you to beat every VR Mission with a 1st Place Rank. The time requirements for some missions are simply insane and annoyingly many of them rely too much on enemy randomness to be able to beat them in the required amount of time, and the last 4 are generally considered to be That One Sidequest, making the trophy harder than necessary.

Monsoon uses extremely fast multi-hit combos, from multiple directions, that will regularly daze Raiden and leave you open for an additional hit if they connect. He can also use smoke grenades that make you unable to lock onto him, and become invulnerable to any attacks other than a counter-attack parry or EM grenade for long periods of time.

The Final Boss can create flame walls that trap you into a small area of the combat arena, throw debris that require you to line up a perfect Blade Mode strike in 2-3 seconds multiple times in a row, regenerate health, and even knock your weapon out of your hand.

The Jetstream Sam DLC buffs him so the fight opens up with helicopters crashing into the ground and leaving a trail of homing flames. The Boss now has charges that can chase you even while you're in midair and which he can repeat up to 7 passes on Revengeance, all of which you need to dodge perfectly to avoid getting hit, as well as a plethora of other new attacks. It is made even harder when you realize that Sam has poorer defense than Raiden and attempting cheese the fight by hit and runs or using midair attacks will result in getting sent flying. If you're unlucky, Sam can get stuck in a six hit headbutt combo.

Metal Gear Ray can be this in the Very Hard Mode due to the lack of healing items and the massive damage it causes.

Ugly Cute: When Sunny calls Bladewolf cute, Raiden responds that Bladewolf isn't the, "cuddling type." As far as weapons of war are concerned, Bladewolf is certainly a sweetheart, but Raiden is right in his assessment that Wolf wasn't designed to be a pet.

When Raiden encounters the Raptors, which are basically robotic dinosaurs, Doktor calls them "adorable." Raiden is less than enthusiastic about agreeing with Doktor's sentiment.

Dwarf Gekkos for some.

Visual Effects of Awesome/Genius Programming: Monsoon's magnetic separation. His animations are absolutely seamless, transitioning from a whole piece of his model to physics-affected segments, and even moving completely independent of him without a single hiccup.

Raiden's missile toward Ray looks like a standard scene scripted to look awesome... until you notice that it's not the same each time and Raiden will pause if you stop pressing forward, that whole scene is happening in game as a ninja run.

Bladewolf needs plenty of hugs after being fooled into thinking that he'll achieve freedom (see his DLC episode for more details) and to be forced to work for Desperado Enforcement to avoid having its memory erased. Plus he's really a kind dog (provided that you don't piss him off) who's very loyal to Raiden after their first encounter.

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